For Richardson, Life’s No ‘Crying Game’ : Movies: The star of that hit film and the current ‘Tom & Viv’ finds success in diverse roles. ‘It is good to have variety,’ she says.

NEW YORK —  In the movie “Tom & Viv,” Miranda Richardson has a classic scenery-chewing role, that of outspoken, hormonally unbalanced and tragically misdiagnosed and overmedicated Vivienne Haigh-Wood, the first wife and possible artistic collaborator, of poet T.S. Eliot. It’s a volcanic performance, in the same league as others that Richardson has given recently--the coldblooded, chameleon IRA hit woman in “The Crying Game,” the wife whose world is shattered by her husband’s infidelity in “Damage.”

Unlike several of her recent work experiences, however, of this one she has only good things to say. “It really was a very happy work experience, liberating, not hard or Angst -y,” she says in a quiet, clipped voice. “Willem (Dafoe, who plays Eliot) was a joy to work with, serious but not reverent. I don’t think there’s anyone I had any ill will toward at all.”

The same could not be said of other experiences, such as her Oscar-nominated turn in “Damage,” an apparent ordeal from the way she publicly excoriated co-star Jeremy Irons and director Louis Malle after the fact. It’s her nature to be forthright, as she explains; she’s unable to gloss over and be glib. “I do sort of have this reputation somehow--I can’t imagine how,” she says with a laugh. “I feel pretty well mannered most of the time.”

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Indeed, the only person to invoke harsh words today is the room service waiter at her Manhattan hotel; he has the audacity to bring up a tea service with tea bags displayed on the sides of the cups. “You can’t do it like that, it must be brewed in the pot!” she snaps, then relaxes when he shows her that that in fact is the case; the bags are simply extras. She smiles semi-apologetically as he very quickly leaves the room.

This bent for perfection, whether in tea or in performance, is part of the reason Richardson, 36, has dazzled directors and critics since director Mike Newell gave her her first film role 10 years ago in “Dance With a Stranger” as bleached-blond 1950s femme fatale Ruth Ellis, the last woman hanged in Britain.

Apart from her skill, though, is her flexibility. Newell cast her seven years later as the mousy 1920s housewife who goes off on an Italian holiday with three other women in “Enchanted April.” In between, she turned in a range of other performances, including a memorable stint as the comically lunatic Queen Elizabeth I in the Rowan Atkinson series “Blackadder.” Late last year, when “Tom & Viv” hit theaters for its Oscar-nomination qualifying run, she was in an episode of the raucous British comedy “Absolutely Fabulous” as an overwrought, chain-smoking new mother. “It is good to have variety,” she says.

Such diversity is nirvana for an actress but often confusion for Hollywood studio executives who can’t quite get a handle on an actor’s persona. Some thought they had after her debut in “Dance With a Stranger.” She was up for the role of the avenging lover in “Fatal Attraction” but turned it down. When this film choice is mentioned, she lets out an audible sigh. “Oh, I’ve done this so many times,” she says. “I know I read it and didn’t want to do it. And I don’t have any regrets about not doing it--it’s not my kind of thing. I know it was a big success but I work more internally--I could never have done it.”

Her forays into Hollywood have been sketchy since. “I’ve never said I wouldn’t work in Hollywood,” she explains. “But good scripts are difficult to come by. And often things are talked about but they get delayed.”

Still, she’s aware that others of her acting generation are making the leap more often, such as “Danny”--Daniel Day-Lewis, her classmate at the Bristol Old Vic repertory company--and fellow leading lady Emma Thompson. “If she’s finding things she wants to do, that’s great,” says Richardson. “Plus we (British actors) are economically a good bet; we come at a lower price than people do here.”

She has, she admits, gotten more offers since the Oscar nomination for “Damage.” And the trip to the ceremony was interesting, since the British Academy Awards are put on in a much more discreet manner. Her parents traveled over for it and they enjoyed the splash and stardom of it, even if she’s more low key.

“It’s like being part of a big theatrical event, you see the mechanics,” she says. “You see the stars and after half an hour, you get used to seeing them. Plus it’s not like I don’t get used to seeing them, so I don’t get squealy about it. People just look smaller than they do on screen.”

For her parents, a homemaker and marketing executive who raised her in Southport near Liverpool, the thrill quotient was obviously greater. It was also reconfirmation of their daughter’s success in a field that they would never have considered. From the beginning, she says, they’ve been tremendously supportive. But they probably would like an additional bit of security.

“I don’t have things stacked up for the next three years, so they always ask what I’m going to do next,” she says. “They always say, ‘Do you have another job?’ ”